A Publisher's Conversation with Authors: Is It Possible to Track Book Sales? Or why did Mother's purchase of my book not show up in book sales tracking?
1. It is Tuesday. Time to tall turkey. Monday's madness is over, and Wednesday will take us over the hump, so Tuesday it is--for some serious discussion with authors. Tuesday talks mean to address authors in waiting and self-published authors who would like to go a more traditional route or who would at least like to take their steps with a publisher by their side. Today's topic shares information about tracking book sales. In complete frankness, it is a repeat of an explanation I provided to MSI Press LLC authors in one of our monthly newsletters. An author recently asked (and others have previously asked) how to tell if a particular action results in a specific number of sales. Alas, we have no way to tell unless we are in direct contact with a bookstore making a large order. Book reports from Ingram (distributor) come as total sales. I wish there were a way to tell sources. It would make marketing and promotion a science instead of an art. Our distributor will